South Africa’s official opposition, the Democratic Alliance, says small and medium businesses should be excluded from costly — and bureaucratic — burdens imposed by the Employment Equity Act.
Kraai van Niekerk — who is acting national leader of the DA while Tony Leon is at a Liberal International conference in Costa Rica — said charges of alleged employment-equity violations against eight clothing companies in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal, will cost South Africa thousands of jobs.
“The eight companies are in violation of Section 20 of the Employment Equity Act (1998), which requires companies to prepare employment-equity plans, and Section 21, which requires them to submit annual reports about employment equity to the department. They face a maximum fine of R500Â 000 each, if found guilty.
“Seven of the companies facing prosecution are Chinese-owned. Newcastle has enjoyed great support from the Chinese government for many years with the result that Chinese firms are currently the largest employer in the area, employing over 4Â 500 people.
“Mainland China has invested an estimated R50-million in the greater Newcastle area to the benefit of the municipality and local workers.
“Textiles constitute a large part of the investment but, as in the rest of South Africa, Newcastle’s once-booming textile industry has declined over the past two years, and 2Â 500 jobs have been lost due to the departure of Chinese investors.
“Further losses will have serious implications for the residents of Newcastle, which already suffers an unemployment rate of over 50%.”
Van Niekerk said China has sent government officials to Newcastle to persuade local Chinese and Taiwanese textile businesses to return to China.
Thirty Chinese businesses attended the investment seminars held by the Chinese government.
The result was that plans were drawn up to send a delegation of business owners to China to explore investment opportunities. Given the upcoming prosecutions, he said the Chinese government “didn’t need to do much convincing”. — I-Net Bridge